Worries Among The Smoke
by Bizarrejoe
Summary: A more grown up Cassie Pines tells her dad about her worries about the future.


It was kind of amusing how even though she put so much effort in leaving behind all her childhood habits, going out of the attic window whenever she didn't want to be seen sneaking out of the house has become more and more frequent for Cassiopeia Pines, even though she was only a year and a month away from becoming an adult.

What wasn't amusing was how nervous she was this time. How easy it was for a small joke to melt away all her confidence on something.

She didn't have any plans of action, or anything under her hoodie this time to make this go away easily. That simple comment brought to her attention how big of a problem something that she had gotten used to thinking was normal(-ish) could really be in the real world.

The only thing under her hoodie right now, was a small comfort, in the form of a pack of cigarettes. She knew that it was bad for her, but it was one the things that could relax her when she was facing any trouble she couldn't just talk about with her parents.

Her parents. Should she bring this up to them? Considering they were part of this particular thing? Knowing her mother she would scream of happiness on the first sentence, and cause the conversation to go on a entirely different tangent. And her dad? Maybe she could talk to him about that. Maybe.

As she walked towards the back of the shack, she started to try and light her cigarette, her lighter however was being wholly uncooperative. She gesticulated and said 'Great, can anything else go wrong today?' just for the sky to answer with thunder. 'It was a rhetorical question!' she screamed back, not appreciating god's sense of humor.

She flinched when her reaction was met with some snickering, and with a lighted match, and the face of Mason Pines, sitting on the sofa she was going towards. Cassie quickly removed the cig from her mouth, afraid of what her dad could tell her. But was surprised when all he did was invite her to sit alongside him, and offered to light her cigarette. Telling her that the match was about to burn his finger.

She lifted an eyebrow, and asked "Aren't you supposed to tell me not to do it?". His relaxed face didn't change, as he told her that he had been smoking for a couple of years when he was her age, and that he would a huge hypocrite by telling her that. When she got close to light it, Cass thought that he probably never stopped, since the strong smell of smoke and nicotine was still present on his fingers.

What she expected to be silent night thinking about what happened today and what it could imply for her in the long run, was instead a very silent night with very little thinking.

She thought it was kinda dickish of her, but her father's relaxed stance and silence were making her nervous. When she was about to break the silence, however, she was met with a question.

"Kid, what's on your mind?"

When she answered with a "pardon me", he told her that nobody goes to their backyard at eleven pm without something to think about.

And while she could have asked him what he was thinking about, she decided to bite the bullet and trust her dad with this. And after about a minute of awkward silences, pauses and "huuh"s she opened with a "There is something that i wanted to talk about. But I'm afraid of talking to mom about it… and it has to do with, uh, I… have, been, kinda. sorta. dating somebody. For a while and…" Cassie stopped and panicked for a minute when the calm facade of her dad broke. He went from having his mouth open to burying his face in his hands.

"Oh god, how many months?" were the first words that came from in between them. That implication was enough to make her spit her cigarette. And almost scream "What? You thought I came here with a bun in the oven? No! Oi, just because mom and you couldn't figure out how a condom works doesn't mean that I'm as clueless as you two!"

She looked incredulously at him as his whole being changed, quickly going back to an even more relaxed expression. Just as if the weight of the world was lifted from his back.

"Then what is it?" Dipper said, pretending that his daughter didn't see him as the worried mess that he actually was under the surface most of the time. He thought that it couldn't be that bad if she didn't fall into what almost was a Pines tradition.

"Well, as I was about to say, before you thought I boned some guy… I was dating, this… girl…?" She was watching his face closely, waiting for any reaction. But what she got was a "Kid, stop looking at me like that. If you came to me looking for someone to judge you in base of who you love, you came to the wrong person," and a signal to ease her nerves and continue.

"Well, it's not about her. Is… well, Junior, we and and the twins were having a good time near the abandoned Dusk 2 Dawn, then he told a joke about us and- I've been thinking." Showing how similar they were, he lifted an eyebrow, before asking if she was serious, and telling her that he never thought of Stan Jr as a homophobe.

Tilting down her head she said "He isn't, it wasn't about us… all he said was 'when are you going to take her to meet the parents?'… and that got me thinking."

"About what she would think of you if she finds out about your mother and I?" He asked. "No," was her answer, "I'm afraid of what she may think of me when I tell her." She explained that, taking a page of the family book, secrets were something they didn't have between themselves, but that she was afraid of her girlfriend's reaction when she decided to finally speak about it.

If he had any wisdom for her, now was the moment to give it to her, and… nothing. Even when her dad talked to people for a living, he had the bad habit of becoming a mute whenever a hard, personal question came. It happened when she found out about her parentage, and it was happening now.

It was frustrating. But she understood, it was something she inherited from him. He was looking for an answer, something to give her, to calm her down and maybe help her with her predicament. But he was going to be like that for a while. So while they tried to think of something, she decided to imitate him and just breathe in thoughtful silence, look up, and watch the dark clouds approaching.


End file.
